Turnout “not tremendously heavy”?

posted at 2:37 pm on May 6, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Uh-oh. If this holds up, Barack Obama may not have such a great day after all in North Carolina. According to the elections director and in opposition to the early reports from the precincts, voter turnout has not been all that remarkable:

Few problems were reported Tuesday as voters cast ballots in presidential and state primaries that were expected to break turnout records.

State elections director Gary Bartlett said turnout was “steady … not tremendously heavy.” The presidential nomination seemed to overshadow primaries for governor, Senate and statewide office.

This comes in an update to a story by WRAL that had predicted twice the normal turnout. This makes sense anyway, since North Carolina rarely has much of an impact on presidential primaries, and the large turnout was thought to favor Barack Obama. A smaller turnout might indicate a loss of momentum for Obama or perhaps election fatigue overall.

Polls close in a few hours, and we’ll find out whether Bartlett is proven correct or the media’s predictions instead. (h/t: Southern Gent)

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

In what many consider the most meaningful North Carolina primary in years, voters will choose between a black candidate and a female candidate – both veteran politicians – for the Democratic nomination for president to face John McCain in November.

Millions of North Carolinians are expected to vote today, setting record turnouts. . Nearly half a million people voted early or cast an absentee ballots before Tuesday arrived — more than half the total number of voters who cast a ballot overall during the 2004 primary.

Gary Bartlett, director of the State Board of Elections, said 85 percent of unaffiliated voters were choosing the Democratic ballot.

If I were a Democrat, I wouldn’t be excited about voting either. It’s a choice between a liar (“I dodged sniper fire in Bosnia”) and another liar (“I wasn’t in church to hear Wright’s racist rants”.) The dems can’t come up with someone better than those two clowns?

You have to break turnout down by precinct and then factor in the early voting totals by precinct to determine if this is good or bad for Obama. Lower turnout in the African-American areas obviously wouldn’t be a good sign, but if it’s down across the board, then the reported heavy early-voting turnout among blacks in N.C. could carry him across the finish line.

I had a hunch this might happen. People who would have voted for Barack Obama before the latest Wright stuff incident might be staying home. Whether it’s political — they question BO’s judgement — or personal — people in the Bible belt may question casting your pastor under the bus — the world may never know.

Hillary: The Movie
Hillary The Movie Uses Hillary Rodham Clintons own words and deeds to expose her record of cynicism, controversy, and scandal. This new documentary illustrates that the politics of personal destruction is Hillary s favored approach to dealing with anyone who stands in her way. The film includes 30 in-depth interviews with experts and opinion makers.

I live in “The Buckle on the Bible Belt”. I would be more likely to applaud than castigate someone for denouncing his minister when that minister had performed like Mr. Wright. The thing that would turn me off isn’t the “throwing him under the bus” part, but the sitting in the pews for 20 years and giving tacit approval to him. If it were the Republican candidate, I would simply refuse to vote for him or her.

Well, I voted for the first time ever (based on a promise I made myself). I will say that I am registered unaffiliated and I did not vote for McCain. That’s all I’ll say about that.

The main reason I was voting was to vote down 500 Billion dollars (half a TRILLION) in school bonds for ONE COUNTY. Illegal aliens have a way of turning our schools into day care centers. We have jail bonds too (thanks illegals). I voted NO to everything. They have enough money. . . if they didn’t waste so much money they’d have more.

I talked to my wife who voted during the lunch hour. We live in a predominantly black district, and she said there was no wait. 2 of the voting booths were open, so she was in and out. She also said the place was mobbed by Obama supporters hovering just outside the ‘no campaigning’ zone.

Oh, I wholehartedly agree with you. But there’s something more to it, given that it is very much tied to the American black church — whether or not Wright is actually representative of that institution. It becomes a race issue, a cultural issue. Consider the attitude of black culture in North Carolina during the Duke rape case. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton could walk into nearly any black church in NC and say just about anything without fear of reprisal. If I recall correctly, they did. But now there’s a sense of unease in that stalwart of BO’s camp. They wonder, how far they can push their agenda, if indeed they have one, before they feel the rubber smacking them in the face?

I voted after work…the lady at my place said it’s been steady, but not overwhelming in accordance with the article. She laughed when I told her I wanted a democrat ticket and for her to pray god to forgive me later one…lol. She literally laughed out loud.